“Who Cares?”

“Who cares?” …  “What’s the point?” … “What possible difference could I make?”… “I’m not sure it’s worth the effort!”… “Why should I help?”

Do these sound remotely familiar? Do we know individuals who don’t believe that their actions matter for much? Do we or they subscribe that we’re all in a purely random journey through life or work? Do we believe that we do not have a big accomplishment to be remembered for? Do we make a difference?

Have we ever met someone, by chance, who made a big difference in the direction of our careers, life, insight, choices, who we have become, even the direction of big events? Random as that meeting or event appeared, it was a consequence of choices made, a bunch of choices that included theirs and yours. Why did that person take time to invest in you or for you? What if they had not, had ignored us or that opportunity, perhaps like we might sometimes do? I’m not talking about butterflies in Africa precipitating the damage from Katrina, but rather the importance of our choices and actions.

The challenge for many of us centers on how to make choices, particularly those choices that do not appear to have explicitly foreseeable benefits to ourselves or loved ones. Yet, these choices are made all the time and all over the world by countless individuals. These choices encompass the innumerable, from charitable acts to ultimate sacrifices.

It’s a tough nut to crack sometimes. Imagine helping Bob solve a tough problem at work and then watch him become world renowned for an invention that revolutionized this or that, cured this disease, etc. Bob got all that credit and our contribution was never mentioned or likely ever be remembered. Do we feel undervalued, lost, ignored?

A really fascinating aspect of history has to do with the world-changing impact that personal choices and decisions made. We read about the obvious big ones, particularly those made affecting the big wars, big bets and gambles, and many other recorded significant outcomes. Revisionism adds a fair amount of post event “must have been” determinism, but so what? Choices did matter and the overwhelming millions of good and great ones are and remain unknown to us. That is a big deal though.

Do we know who Cristobal de Olea was? He had a big impact on what life is like today in the Western Hemisphere, particularly shaping the struggles with illegal immigration, demographic redistributions, and even why the  Mariachi Bands have very French roots. This man’s choice, unknown to many and unmentioned in most history books, changed the world. During a very critical moment in the conquest of what is now Mexico City, Cristobal de Olea chose to come between a spear and Hernan Cortes, perishing in the act. We can surely read about Cortes and all that followed. Had the spear immolated Cortes, killing him, this world would be remarkably different, including the absence of Taco Bell. I don’t believe that Cristobal de Olea weighed credit or fame when making what he believed to be a good choice.

Okay, I’m not suggesting we begin taking bullets as our point, but rather that there are always bigger things at play that hinge or are affected by our choices. We make a bigger difference, often unseen to others or unknown to us, than can be discerned at the moment of choice.

Here’s the interesting part. A choice we can make today, for personal or business reasons, can transform our likelihood of making better choices!

• We can invest in developing and behaving in accordance with a set of positive values.
• We can search for, discover, develop, or choose a purpose to our lives, profession, work, goals and actions.
• This is as applicable to organizations.

Choices today reduce or eliminate some future randomness. They change the direction of future decisions and increase the likelihood that we will take meaningful, possibly life altering actions, changed by our values and purpose. Right now, we may be persuaded that there may be merit in these thoughts, even experiencing tummy warming.

• Is that enough? Will it be easy or hard do what is necessary to direct the course of our future choices and actions?
• What will it take? At what point does our “choices scale” reach the balance point and then the tipping point, between where we are to where we could be?
• Does developing a means to make better choices seem like a good investment of our time?
• Do we do better when we react, or respond with forethought?

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet, essayist and lecturer.